Beatrice Stockly, a Christian woman from Switzerland who worked in Timbuktu, was abducted earlier this month after an Islamist coup in the once democratic nation of Mali. Reports indicate that Stockly may have been sold by her captives to the fundamentalist Muslim group Ansar Dine.

Ansar Dine then released Stockly on Apr. 24 after reportedly brokering a deal with the Swiss government. Officials from Burkina Faso, whose special forces accepted the handover of Stockly by Ansar Dine, denied that any ransom was paid.

Naturally, Switzerland and Burkina Faso must deny the claim that a ransom was paid because: 1) paying such ransoms violates international law, 2) announcing ransom payments in public encourages further abductions by the jihadists, and 3) paying ransoms indicates the countries are not prepared to use force to free their kidnapped citizens.

But it is only logical to assume that a payment was in fact made. There would have been no incentive for Ansar Dine to release the woman otherwise. Moreover, Islamic law permits the collection of ransoms after abducting non-Muslims—a precept with which Ansar Dine is certainly familiar. Ansar Dine probably has a little more spending money today than it had prior to the Stockly affair.

Around 1,500 Islamist radicals protested today in the Macedonian capital Skopje demanding the release of the five Islamist radical suspects arrested by the police on the 2nd of May following an intensive 3 week investigation of the cold-blooded summary execution of four Macedonian children and one mid-aged Macedonian while they were fishing on Good Friday this year.
The Macedonians are predominantly Christians while the ethnic Albanian minority in Macedonia that accounts for around 20% of the population are predominantly Muslims. In the last decade there have been increased incidences of imported radical Islamism from the Middle East that has not found a fertile ground among the Macedonian Albanians despite their attempts to lure them into extremism. However,there are reported Islamist terrorists cells in whole of the South-East Europe region including Macedonia.
The Macedonian police ensured that the protest and march through the streets didn’t took a chaotic turn.The radical Islamist protesters chanted “Allahu Akbar”,”Death to Christians”,”War on the Christians”,and brandished Al Qaeda insignias.http://www.taratur.com/data/05.04skopjeprotesti01.jpg
The Macedonian police had arrested three out of the five suspects directly implicated into carrying the horrific crime that Macedonia has not seen since the WWII.All the neighbouring countries pledged support to the Macedonian Interior Ministry and arresting the two remaining suspects for whom Interpol warrants have already been issued.